Ryanair has today announced plans to change its bag policy again - which it expects to affect around 40% of its customers.

Earlier this year, the airline revealed it was changing the rules so that only priority boarding passengers could take two cabin bags on board its planes.

This meant if passengers wanted to take more than one small piece of hand luggage, they would need to pay for priority boarding. Otherwise, their second bag would be tagged at the gate and put into the hold free of charge.

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Under the latest changes, it is still the case that only priority customers can bring two free carry-on bags - but the airline said, from November, non-priority customers can only bring one free (small) carry-on bag and there will be no free gate bags.

(Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire)

Instead, if non-priority customers want to bring a second bigger bag, Ryanair said they can buy a lower-cost 10kg check bag for £8 at time of booking (currently a 20kg bag costs £25).

It said this 10kg wheelie bag must then be checked in at the airport bag drop desk. The airline also said all customers with checked bags could now switch from the £25, 20kg bag to the £8, 10kg checked bag.

Mirror Online reports that it's good news if you'd planned to check in a second bag anyway - as you'll be able to pay £8 for a bag up of to 10kg instead of the usual £25 for a bag of up to 20kg.

But, it said, if you hadn't planned to pay for a second bag, the choice for non-priority passengers will be to either pay the extra £6 for priority boarding (£8 if you choose to add this to your booking later), pay £8 to get it checked in the hold or stick to one small bag.

"Priority boarding customers will continue to enjoy two free carry-on bags. All other (non-priority) customers will be allowed one free (small) carry-on bag - and those who wish to check in a second bigger 10kg bag can do from €/£8 at the time of booking.

"This new policy will speed up the boarding and cut flight delays. 60% of customers will be unaffected by these changes and we expect that the other 40% will either choose to buy priority boarding or a 10kg check bag or will choose to travel with only one (free) small bag, as 30% already do so today."

According to Ryanair, the new bag policy will apply to all travel on or after November 1.

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It said non-priority customers who booked flights before September 1 for travel after November 1 can either add Priority Boarding for £8 or a 10kg bag for £10 - the prices when added after booking - or they may cancel their booking for a full refund.